Color-prediction discrepancies and differential chromaticity thresholds with photopigment bleaching.

The differential chromaticity thresholds of three color stimuli have been determined from metameric matches carried out during the cone-plateau period after photopigment bleaching. The results are compared with some recently published ones [E. Hita, L. Jiménez del Barco, and J. Romero, J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3, 1203 (1986)] obtained under similar experimental conditions but without prior photopigment bleaching. The possible effects of rod intrusion on color-prediction discrepancies are discussed in the light of both sets of results. Under our experimental conditions, with foveal fields of 3 deg, luminance within the low photopic level, and sets of primary colors produced by filters of differing spectral bandwidth, the rod intrusion effect can be ruled out as a possible cause of color-prediction discrepancies, although it does appear to produce variations in the sizes of the discrimination ellipses and in their orientation.